A Coast Guard boat leaves the harbor of the island of Lampedusa (archive)

ROME, May 12. /ITAR-TASS/. A vessel with 400 migrants on board capsized off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, ANSA news agency reported Monday at least 10 people were killed.

The crash occurred 100 miles from Lampedusa to the scene humanitarian mission Mare Nostrum ships arrived. About 200 illegal immigrants were saved, total at least 400 people were on the board. A few days ago 36 people died while they were trying to cross the Sicilian Strait off the coast of Libya.

Mare Nostrum mission saved about 1,000 illegal immigrants during the last two days. Since the beginning of the year 25 thousand people arrived in southern Italy by the sea.

Italian authorities want to involve the EU in addressing the problem. Daily mission Mare Nostrum Rome costs 300,000 euro. Many immigrants often use Italy as a transit point to travel to northern Europe, there is no place to accommodate them. Temporary migrant centers are overcrowded. According to the Italian ministry of Internal Affairs about 600,000 refugees in Libya wait to be sent to Europe.

About 500 African immigrants were killed in a shipwreck in October 2013 near the island of Lampedusa, not all bodies were found. People from Somalia and the poorest African countries, as well as Syria , Pakistan, Palestine are among most of the refugees.

Military-humanitarian mission Mare Nostrum was established after this incident. The main aim of the mission is to rescue migrants getting to Italy by sea. About 100 rescue operations have been held for distressed ships as part of the mission so far.